Chapter 18: Rematch, Jack Vs Weiss Shi

When I finally caught up to her, she still wouldn’t acknowledge me.

Not a glance. Not a word. Just that same cold indifference.

I tried talking, calmly at first. Tried to persuade her, reason with her. But it was like speaking to a wall carved from ice.

Seriously? All of this just because I split her mask in two?

That’s seriously the dumbest reason to stay mad at someone.

If being nice wasn’t going to cut it, then maybe it was time to be… less nice.

"You’re seriously an immature brat," I snapped.

That did it.

She froze.

Then turned around slowly, her gaze as sharp as her blade. Clearly not amused.

I exhaled. "Look, I’m sorry about your precious mask, okay? But the Queen’s asking me to help. I need to unlock your magic, and that’s not happening unless you let me use my powers. So please—just let me—"

I reached out to place a hand on her shoulder.

Big mistake.

She grabbed my wrist. Hard. Like painfully hard.

She wasn’t letting go.

My arm tensed from the pressure, and I had to trigger my glitching ability just to force a release. I stumbled back and grabbed the hilt of my Dangatana.

She drew her weapon too, and in a blink, both of our blades were at each other’s throats.

Great.

"Alright," I said, tightening my grip. "Let’s make this simple. A rematch. If I win, you let me unlock your Magime. No more running. No more silent treatment. You let me help."

"And if you win…" I paused. "You decide. I don’t know what you want, so name it. Whatever it is… deal?"

She didn’t say a word.

Didn’t blink.

She just lunged at me with her second blade.

I blocked just in time.

"…I guess that’s a yes."
No words. No warnings.

Just steel.

She dashed toward me like a silent wraith, twin swords flashing in the dying sunlight. I barely had time to phase backward, just a five-foot flicker and her blades sliced the air where my chest had been.

The fight had begun.

She didn’t say a single word. No trash talk. No expression. Just precision.

In the stone hallways of the castle, her footwork was flawless. Narrow corridors, blind corners, she used them like traps. Twice she nearly caught me, only for me to teleport just in time, glitching past her with bursts of neon static.

She ducked under a swing of my Dangatana, flipped over a staircase railing, landed silently, and fired a round from her pistol, right at my head.

I phased into the wall. Literally through it. Landed on the other side coughing, the residual static in my lungs burning.

She was already there.

Blade to my neck.

This again? I thought. I already lost this fight.

But I wasn’t that same guy anymore.

I dropped a spark of Nova Bloom at our feet, not a full blast, just enough to blind and rattle her and blinked five feet behind.

We broke out of the corridor and into the training courtyard. The open space gave me room to move. To plan.

She moved in shadows. I moved in code.

She came in low. I vaulted backward, sword arcing. We clashed under the light of the twin moons, the ringing of our blades echoing through the castle walls.

I knew her rhythm now.

She liked threes. Three slashes, a pivot, a shot. That was her pattern.

I timed it.

When she did her next combo, I parried the last strike and teleported, placing my hand on her shoulder mid-glitch, like a phantom stepping into reality and used that brief window to throw her balance off.

She stumbled.

For the first time, I saw her falter.

She rolled back, rose to her feet, twirled her swords and went for the rooftops.

Oh, you wanna go vertical? I thought.

I glitched straight onto the castle parapet, catching her in mid-air. Our blades clanged again as we spun along the rooftop, tiles cracking underfoot, the wind howling as night fully settled in.

Up here, it was about agility.

She was faster, but I could cheat physics.

She ducked under one of my swings, kicked my knee, and nearly had me off the edge, but I teleported just as she lunged, appearing behind her with a glitched shimmer.

Our blades crossed again, and this time… I held.

She tried to twist away, but I locked her movement. My Dangatana was at her throat.

This time, I won.

But I didn’t finish it.

I didn’t force her down or taunt her or demand anything.

I just stepped back and lowered my sword.

"No point in continuing," I said quietly. "I already made my point."

She blinked.

She stared at me.

I could see it in her eyes—this slight shift, this flicker of thought. She wasn’t expecting that.

And maybe, just maybe, she respected it.

Before anything else could be said or not said light exploded around us, followed by a surge of raw pressure that forced us both to one knee.

"Suppressant Mystica!" came the voice.

The Queen stood in the courtyard below, her staff glowing like a star, magic radiating from her in pulsing waves.

"What in the realms is happening here!?"

I froze.

Crap. I was so dead. Duel on castle grounds? That had to break about fifty rules.

But before I could explain, Weiss Shi spoke.

Her voice cut through the silence like a knife.

"We were training."

The Queen raised a brow. "Training?"

"Yes," Weiss said calmly. "A mock engagement. No malice. Just preparation."

I turned, surprised.

She looked straight at the Queen. Calm. Stoic.

Lying. For me.

The Queen narrowed her gaze for a moment longer, then let the magic dissipate. The pressure lifted.

"Very well," she said. "But next time, ask permission. And don’t shatter the west tower roof."

She vanished in a shimmer of light.

Weiss sheathed her blades and turned to leave.

I called out, "So… does this mean I won? Are you going to let me help you?"

She paused.

Didn’t speak.

But she gave me the smallest nod.
Weiss Shi brought me to her room.
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure this was a good idea.
My brain was spinning.
Not only had I just defeated Weiss Shi a feat that still felt unreal, but now she was actually talking to me… and bringing me into her room?
Either she was secretly planning to kill me in some elaborate ninja fashion…Or maybe, just maybe this was the moment she finally opened up.Not in that way, perv. I meant emotionally. Explaining why she’s always so cold. Distant. Especially toward me.
She turned to face me.
Her expression unreadable.Then, in her usual flat tone, she said:
"Do it."
My brain short-circuited.
"Wait, what?"
"Do it," she repeated, still deadpan.
I blinked.That could mean a thousand different things.
I hesitated, then slowly walked up to her. Unsure. Cautious. And then… I wrapped my arms around her. A hug. A soft, respectful one.
She immediately punched me in the gut.
"Guh—" I staggered, and before I could recover, she grabbed my wrist, twisted, and judo-threw me flat onto the floor.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" she snapped.
"I don’t know!" I groaned, wincing from the impact. "You just said ‘Do it’ without context! What did you think I was gonna assume!?"
She glared at me.
"Unlock my Magime with your glitching abilities, you genius."
"Oh." I laid there for a second, catching my breath. "Okay, yeah… that makes more sense."
She crossed her arms, her face unreadable—but her ears were definitely a bit red.
I added, grinning through the pain, "Hey… I still gave you a warm hug. Least I could do after you covered for me in front of the Queen."
That caught her off guard. She glanced away for a second, as if pretending not to hear it. Then, with a sigh, she stepped forward, extended her hand, and pulled me back up.
She still didn’t say much…But this time, she didn’t let go right away either.
We sat side-by-side on the edge of her narrow bed neither of us quite sure where to place our hands or our eyes.
I reached out, laid a palm on her shoulder, and let the glitch roll through my arm like liquid static.

Lines of dull-blue code fanned out across her cloak, cracked, and fell away like broken glass.
For nearly a minute we sat in absolute silence, just the soft pulse of my ability, the tick-tick of castle clocks somewhere beyond the walls, and Weiss Shi’s slow breathing as she waited.

Click.

The last lock shattered.

Weiss opened her HUD, eyes flicking over invisible screens only she could see. A faint muscle eased in her jaw.

New Skill Unsealed: Venue Shift
Instantly teleport to any location the user has previously visited.

Perfect for a scout and crucial for us. She’d already mapped the Khaterinth Mountains; now we wouldn’t have to march a week through poison fog to reach them.

She closed the screens and gave the smallest nod.
"Thank you," she said and for Weiss Shi, that was practically a novel.

I stood, half-turned toward the door, then paused. "Hey… can I ask you something before I go?"

She looked over but didn’t speak.

"I keep wondering—why did you spare me during the Easter-Egg hunt? I mean, you could’ve banned me for glitching or just… finished me off." I laughed awkwardly. "My friends told me you were definitely planning to kill me, by the way."

Silence. She didn’t even blink.

"And you’re always so distant," I continued. "You hardly talk to the other champions, let alone us players. So… why spare me?"

She rolled one wrist, inspecting the flex of new-unlocked magic, then said, almost bored, "Who says I was going to kill you?"

"Well—Jarrod and Judeth—"

"Do you always believe whatever your friends tell you?"

"Absolutely," I answered. "They’re my family. They joke around for sure, but they’d never lie. Same way I’d never lie to them."

For the first time, she broke eye contact—turning to stare out the narrow window at Mondunion’s moonlit rooftops. Her voice, when it came, was barely above a whisper.

"What is your goal here?"

"Right now? Get my friend back and find a way home."
I exhaled. "Before I knew the truth… yeah, I wanted the money. Five million dollars changes a lot of lives. Mine, my family’s, my roommates’. That’s all."

I started toward the door.

"I don’t know," she said softly behind me.

I paused. "Don’t know what?"

"I don’t know why I spared you. I was… planning to end you permanently. But when I saw you—really saw you—something about you reminded me of someone I used to know."

Her words hit harder than any blade she’d swung tonight. My mind flashed back to the Three Stars match, how her unmasked face had stirred a memory so deep I still couldn’t place it.

Something long buried.
Something that made my chest tighten even now.

Neither of us spoke for a long moment.

Then I gave a single nod of understanding and stepped into the corridor.

Whatever that shared echo from the past was, it would have to wait.
In three days we’d be standing inside the Mountain Maze, against a monster that didn’t care about old memories or unspoken regrets.

But at least, for the first time, Weiss Shi and I were walking toward that fight on the same side.